Language Culture and Society Course Intro

LANGUAGE, CULTURE
AND SOCIETY
COURSE
Course Description
This course allows the students to explore

the inextricable link between and among
language, culture, and society and its
implications to the development of English
as a global language and the ways by
which it is learned and taught.
With this, they must demonstrate
content knowledge and application
of the lingua franca to cultural,
societal, and even pedagogical
development through a study of
research-based principles in
language and language teaching.
Also, they must be able to
gain insights of responsive
learning environments in
terms of language and
community/society needs.
Course Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, the students

should be able to:
A. demonstrate content knowledge and
application of the relationship of language,
culture and society in the perspective of
English language teaching;
B. apply research-based
knowledge and principles of
English language teaching and
learning through case
presentations and journal
reviews; and
C. demonstrate an
understanding of knowledge
of language learning
environments that respond to
community contexts.
A Review on the
Definitions of
Language
Language, a system of
conventional spoken, manual
(signed), or written symbols by
means of which human beings, as
members of a social group and
participants in its culture, express
themselves.
Aristotle : “Language is a
speech sound produced by
human beings in order to
express their ideas, emotion,
thoughts, desires and
feelings.
Henry Sweet, an English
phonetician and language scholar :
“Language is the expression of ideas
by means of speech-sounds
combined into words. Words are
combined into sentences, this
combination answering to that of
ideas into thoughts.”.
Saussure
Language is an arbitrary system of signs
constituted of the signifier and signified. In
other words, language is first a system based
on no logic or reason; secondly, the system
covers both objects and expressions used for
objects; and thirdly objects and expressions are
arbitrarily linked; and finally, expressions
include sounds and graphemes used by
humans for generating speech and writing
respectively for the purpose of communication.
Sapir: Language is a purely human and non-
instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions, and desires by means of a system of
voluntarily produced sounds. The definition of
Sapir expresses that language is mainly
concerned with only human beings and
constituted a system of sounds produced by
them for communication.
Bloomfield
The totality of the utterances that can be made in
a speech community is the language of that
speech community. Bloomfield’s definition of
language focuses on the utterances produced by
all the people of a community, and hence
overlooks writing. Besides, he stresses form, not
meaning, as the basis of language.
Bloch and Trager
According to Bloch and Trager, a language
is a system of arbitrary vocal sounds by
means of a social group cooperates. In their
definition of language, they point out that,
language is an arbitrary system, vocal
sounds, way of communication, and
collectivity.
According to them, every physiologically
and mentally typical person acquires in
childhood the ability to make use, as both
sender and receiver, of a system of
communication that comprises a
circumscribed set of symbols (e.g., sounds,
gestures, or written or typed characters). In
spoken language, this symbol set consists of
noises resulting from movements of certain
organs within the throat and mouth.
In signed languages, these symbols may be
hand or body movements, gestures, or
facial expressions. By means of these
symbols, people are able to impart
information, to express feelings and
emotions, to influence the activities of
others, and to comport themselves with
varying degrees of friendliness or hostility
toward persons who make use of
substantially the same set of symbols.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky says the language is the
inherent capability of the native speakers to
understand and form grammatical sentences. A
language is a set of (finite or infinite) sentences,
each finite length and constructed out of a finite
set of elements. This definition of language
considers sentences as the basis of a language.
Sentences may be limited or unlimited in
number, and are made up of only limited
components.
Derbyshire
Derbyshire says the language is undoubtedly a
kind of means of communication among
human beings. It consists primarily of vocal
sounds. It is articulatory, systematic, symbolic
and arbitrary. This definition of Derbyshire
clearly utters, language is the best source of
communication. It also portrays how human
language is formed and what are the
fundamental principles of language.
Lyons
According to Lyons, languages are the
principal systems of communication used
by particular groups of human beings
within the particular society of which they
are members. Especially Lyons points out
that, language is the best communicative
system of human beings by particular
social groups.
Wardhaugh
A language is a system of
arbitrary vocal sounds used for
human communication. This
definition of language by
Wardhaugh mainly insists on
arbitrariness, vocal sounds,
humans and communication.
Patanjali
Indian linguist Patanjali utters,
language is that human
expression which is produced by
different speech organs of human
beings. Through speech organs,
humans produced several
expressions which are converted
to language.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Language is a system of conventional or written
symbols by means of which human beings as
members of social groups and participants in its
culture, communicate. In other words, it says the
language is a system of communication of which
human beings express themselves.
Thus, we can say, language is a system of
communication or arbitrary vocal sounds by means
of which human beings are used to communicate
and interact with each other in their everyday life.
There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages
available in the entire world used by different kinds
of social groups and cultures.
Language, is described as,
species-specific to human
beings.
Next Topic:
Macroskills and
Communicative Competence

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LANGUAGE, CULTURE

This course allows the students to explore

At the end of the course, the students

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